Professor Darren Ashcroft BPharm, MSc, PhD

Over the last decade, Darren has been a member of numerous local, regional and national committees focused on medication usage within the NHS. Current membership includes:

National committees

• Clinical Evaluation and Trials Prioritisation Group, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme
• Patient Safety Advisory Committee, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
• Prescribing Indicators National Group (PING), Department of Health
• Technology Appraisals Committee, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

Memberships of Professional Organisations

• Academic Pharmacy Group
• International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE)
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
• UK Drug Utilisation Review Group (DURG)

Darren is the founding Director of the Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety Research. As a pharmacist and pharmaco-epidemiologist, his major research interests and teaching focus on the use of medicines within society. Topics of particular interest include: the scientific, policy and social determinants of prescribing practices, adherence by patients with prescribed regimens, methods to improve the appropriateness and safety of drug prescribing and drug taking, and quantification of the risks and benefits of drug therapies.

Undergraduate:

Disease Management

Prescribing

Influences on Professional Practice

Health economics

Post-graduate diploma in Clinical and Health Services Pharmacy

Medicines Management and Practice Research

Health Care Management

Darren Ashcroft graduated in Pharmacy (BPharm) from the University of Nottingham and was awarded an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy (with Distinction) from the Queen’s University of Belfast and a PhD from the University of Aston. In 2002, he was appointed as Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Manchester. He was subsequently promoted to Reader in Medicines Usage and Safety in 2007 and Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology in 2010.  

Darren is Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, and is a member of the editorial boards of Current Drug Safety, Core Evidence and Expert Reviews of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. He has reviewed on a wide range of national research committees, authored over 150 academic papers and conference proceedings, and secured a number of highly competitive research grants in the fields of medicines usage and patient safety.

In 2009, he was awarded the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) Practice Research Award Medal for outstanding contribution to pharmacy practice research.

• 1999 - PhD - Aston University, Birmingham
• 1996 - MSc (with Distinction) - The Queen's University of Belfast
• 1994 - MRPharmS
• 1993 - BPharm (Hons) - University of Nottingham